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Title 






Imprint 



Virginia Military Institute 

and the 
May 15, 1864 




By Colonel William Couper 



^7n* V 1 i 


TtT* r 


b of Ponar 


^xth on % 


^tel 


NEW MARKET CADET BATTLE DEATHS | 


( In the order of death 


in 1864) 


SERGEANT CABELL 


D Co. 


Killed on the battlefield 
May 15th 


PRIVATE CROCKETT 


D Co. 


Killed on the battlefield 
May 15 th 


PRIVATE JONES 


D Co. 


Killed on the battlefield 
May 15th 


PRIVATE MCDOWELL 


B Co. 


Died on the battlefield 

May 15th 


PRIVATE STANARD 


B Co. 


Died in field hospital 
on the battlefield 

May 15 th 


PRIVATE JEFFERSON 


B Co. 


Wounded and died in 
home of Mrs. Cline- 
dinst, New Market, 
Va May 18th 


PRIVATE WHEELWRIGHT 


C Co. 


Wounded and died in 
the home of Dr. 
Newman, Harrison- 
burg, Va June 2nd 


PRIVATE HAYNES 


B Co. 


Wounded and died in 
the Powhatan Hotel 
Hospital, Richmond, 
Va., about. . .June 15th 


PRIVATE HARTSFIELD 


D Co.* 


Wounded and died in 
a hospital in Peters- 
burg, Va., where he 
collapsed on the street 




• . 


while en route to his 






home in Wake 






County, N. C. 

June 26th 


CORPORAL A'i'WILLJ 


A Co. 


Wounded and died in 
the home of Dr. F. 
T. Stribling, Staun- 




D Co. on 


ton, Va July 20th 

official report. 


•B Co. on the monument; 


jPromoted to 3rd Sergeant 


, C Co., on June 27th, 1864, but never 1 


served. 










1961 






O^ Virginia Military Institute 



and the 

Battle of New Market 



This is not a new story. It has been related and written 
many times. Furthermore, it could be told briefly. A Con- 
federate army under General Breckinridge defeated a Fed- 
eral army under General Sigel at New Market, Va., on May 
15, 1864. The VMI cadets were in the victorious army and 
took part in the final charge. That is a correct statement and 
one which many consider sufficient, if we may judge from 
the narrative as it is recorded in numerous histories. But some 
people desire to know a little more about what occurred and 
to them I speak. Our story starts on the tenth of May, 1864, 
the day a memorial service was conducted in Lexington for the 
great military chieftain, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jack- 
son, who died just one year earlier following his wounding at 
Chancellorsville. It was in Lexington that he made his home 
while he was a professor at VMI, and he was laid to rest in 
the town's cemetery where this ceremony, attended by the Cadet 
Corps and a great throng of visitors, was held. 



The ceremony over, the corps returned to the Institute and 
resumed the customary routine. It was Hke any other night in 
the barracks and as "Taps" reverberated from the surrounding 
hills, the cadets, having rolled their mattresses on the floor, 
were soon slumbering. Little did they know that a courier on 
foaming steed had dashed in from the northward at nine 
o'clock and reined up at headquarters then located in what 
is now the center of the parade ground. Immediately all was 
astir — a not unexpected movement of the corps was at hand 
but there was much to be done in a short time. Horses had to 
be impressed for the artillery; stores, ammunition, and equip- 
ment must be assembled; and organization orders had to be 
prepared. These provided among other things that eight cadets 
from each company should be detailed for service with the 
artillery and twenty-seven other unfortunates were tolled off, 
who, because of sickness, assignment to the duty of guarding 
the Institute and other causes, had to be left behind. These pre- 
liminaries out of the way the cadets were notified — and later 
'twas said: 

"One night when the boys were all abed, we heard the 
long roll beat, 

And quickly the walls of the building shook with the 
tread of hurrying feet; 

And iL'hen the battalion stood in line we heard the wel- 
come warning; 

Breckinridge needs the help o' the corps: he ready to 
march in the morning." 

r2] 




The Charge of the VMI Cadets at New Market 



Now, Major General John C. Breckinridge, the Confederate 
commander, a veteran of the Mexican War, was a former 
United States Senator, who, although only forty-three years of 
age, had been Vice-President of the United States and one of 
three unsuccessful candidates for the presidency in I860 when 
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a minority, or forty per 
cent of the popular vote. Breckinridge's opponents at New 
Market were commanded by Major General Franz Sigel, a 
forty-year-old native of Germany, who had been Minister of 
War in Baden before he came to the United States, and who 
had enjoyed some military success earlier in the war in the West. 
Sigel's cavalry commander, Julius Stahel, was also a Major 
General. 

"Breckinridge needs the help o' the corps: he ready to 
march in the morning:' And telling of the morrow, the same 
bard, Irving Bacheller, said: 

"The battalion ivas off on the Staunton pike as soon as 
the sun had risen. 

And we turned and cheered for the 'VMl! hut yester- 
day a prison.'' 

Yes, at sunrise they were up, but to be strictly accurate 
they started at seven, and that night, without benefit of tentage, 
they camped at Midway while the rain, through which they 
had marched for eighteen miles, continued to fall in torrents. 
Rain, Rain, Rain — it continued for days. At Midway there 
was, and still is, a Presbyterian Church nearby. Some cadets 
seeking shelter climbed through the windows and, in the 
words of one of them, they "slept where many a good follower 

[4] 



of Calvin had slept before us." Verily, the genus cadet changeth 
not. Perhaps it was the Spirit of Youth. 

On through the mud and drenching elements the corps 
pressed the next day to Staunton, where a regimental band 
struck up a tune similar to the later published "Rock-a-bye, 
Baby," as the corps passed, and when seasoned veterans took up 
the strain, the cadets waxed furious. But the tables were soon 
turned, for tired though the cadets were, it was a night of 
jollification and in the grim art of dancing the veterans were 
no match for the young soldiers they had so recently ridiculed. 
Another evidence of the Spirit of Youth. 

Staunton was the first objective of the Federal army ap- 
proaching from the north, but the Confederate forces reached 
there first — having arrived from Southwest Virginia just ahead 
of the cadets. A decision was now necessary. Should the Con- 
federates intrench and try to stave off the invaders or should 
they press on and intercept them farther down the Valley? 
The decision was quickly made and the next morning — Friday 
the thirteenth — leaving three cadets behind in Staunton, the 
corps pushed on — again through the rain; this time an integral 
part of an organized army. That night they camped at Mt. 
Crawford and on the following, or fourth, night they camped 
in a grove beside the pike — about seventy miles from Lexington 
— and here again many of the cadets slept in a church. Less 
than ten miles beyond was New Market, a little village which 
marked the junction of the Valley Pike and an important road 
which led eastward over the mountains. This made it strategi- 

[5] 



cally an important position to defend and there, at the suggestion 
of General Imboden, who had been impeding the approach 
of the invaders, it was determined to make a stand — he having 
represented that the next Hne of defense was at Lacy Spring, 
about nine miles southward and near the camp of the cadets. 
However, with the hope of luring the Federals onward. General 
Breckinridge decided on the night of the fourteenth to with- 
draw General Imboden's men from the town, which they had 
held throughout the day despite several Federal attacks. 

That same night a courier splashing along the Pike 
brought a dispatch about an hour after midnight which caused 
the corps to be roused and formed. The Commandant, Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Scott Shipp, and his four tactical officers, called 
"subs" at VMI, were all experienced in war service. Each com- 
pany, then as now, was under a tactical officer with the rank 
of captain and in this campaign the cadet officers were called 
by a title one grade lower than that in which they were nor- 
mally commissioned — a cadet captain was called a first lieu- 
tenant, for instance. One of the tactical officers, a son of the 
principal advocate of the establishment of the Institute, was 
Captain Frank Preston, who just twelve months before had 
lost an arm in battle. In the dank atmosphere of that early 
morning hour, as the devoted band of youths reverently bowed 
their heads, this maimed young warrior asked the protection 
of Deity before the corps again took up the march along the 
muddy pike. It was a gloomy march, broken by the formality 
of cooking breakfast; by several agonizing halts along the 



road; and it terminated in the morning hours when the corps 
having reached a point about one mile from New Market, 
swung off to the left and formed a line at right angles 
to the Pike behind a low elevation, called Shirley's Hill. Off 
to the right of the cadets was Imboden's cavalry and a battery, 
and in front of the corps were two lines of Confederate 
soldiers, before which skirmishers had begun to advance slowly 
toward the town. 

The cadets stayed behind the hill for some time on that 
Sabbath morning and could see nothing of what was going on 
beyond; but later they learned that about three regiments of 
infantry (123rd Ohio; 1st West Virginia; and detachments 
from the 15th New York, 20th and 22nd Pennsylvania, and 
34th Massachusetts) and three hundred cavalrymen (1st New 
York) had occupied the town in the early morning hours and 
that Snow's Federal battery had taken a position there further 
back in a churchyard. These troops were commanded by Col. 
Augustus Moor. 

When the cadets swung off the Pike and took their position 
in the reserve, it was not possible for their artillery section 
to follow them through the mire, and Minge, the first cadet 
captain, was directed to join the Confederate artillery — which, 
incidentally, was commanded by Major Wm. McLaughlin, a resi- 
dent of Lexington and a former member of the Board of 
Visitors. 

No tactical officers accompanied the VMI artillery and 
the dash of this section, under its captain, as it swept off at a 

[7] 



gallop, has been heralded by many cadets as their first glimpse 
of the battle and one of the most inspiring of the day. Yes, 
to the artillery went the honor of going into the fray first, 
and there they continued rather longer than the other cadets, 
but it was not their lot to be in the final infantry charge. There 
were thirty-two cadets in the artillery detail and they served 
two rifled iron three-inch muzzle loaders which had replaced 
the bronze guns of the old Cadet Battery six months before. 

In addition to these thirty-two artillerists, how many 
cadets were engaged? We know there were six officers, and 
Colonel Shipp, who commanded the cadets, supplied the answer 
when he said simply: "Carried 215 officers and men in the in- 
fantry battalion into the fight." 

And here we should recall that the VMI connection 
with the Battle of New Market extends far beyond the corps 
of cadets — there were many former cadets there and they had 
much to do with the direction of operations. Two of the four 
Confederate generals in that battle are on our list of graduates, 
and a third, Imbodcn, although himself not a graduate, had a 
brother in the corps of cadets in the battle. Generals Wharton, 
'47, and Echols, '43, both graduates, commanded the two in- 
fantry brigades, and the regiments and battalions comprising 
those brigades were commanded by other graduates — Col. 
George H. Smith, '53 (62nd Va. Regt.); Col. Geo. S. Patton, 
'52 (22nd Va. Regt.); Lt.-Col. George M. Edgar, '56 (26th 
Va. Bat'n); Major Peter J. Otcy, '60 (second in command of 
the 30th Va. Bat'n); and Licur. Ciol. Scott Shipp, '59 (VMI 
Cadet I^at'n ) . 



The best estimate — and no one has precise figures — of 
the opposing forces at New Market shows that a Confederate 
Army of 4,500 endeavored to stay an invading Federal Army 
of 6,000, but it is probable that not more than 2,000 and 4,000, 
respectively, were actually engaged. 

Thus we see that for every cadet there were from eight 
to eighteen other Confederate soldiers. Insignificant perhaps, 
but theirs was the fortune to advance steadily, as the battle 
progressed northward, from the reserve to the front line, 
and to deliver the irresistible final thrust. 

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when the 
battle of New Market commenced, although the skirmishers had 
gone forward at nine and the artillery duel started about 
half an hour before that. It is quite necessary to say "about" 
because the manifold accounts, and I have been privileged to 
study all of them, vary. The morning hours were consumed 
in driving the Federals from the town and General Sigel, who 
arrived in person about noon, directed his advance brigade 
to withdraw and take station on a hill about a mile to the 
northward, where Von Kleiser's battery had been posted. Half 
a mile back of this position, in turn, Sigel drew up another line 
and there opposite the Confederate left he massed most of his 
artillery on the heights along the Shenandoah River. It was a 
strong position, which, as seen by the Confederate commanders, 
may be described in a few words. Off to the left was the North 
Fork of the Shenandoah River; to the right was a tributary, 
called Smith's Creek, normally shallow but then an impassable 
torrent due to the long continued rain — at the high point oc- 



cupied by the second line of Federals the fairway between 
the then unfordable streams was only three-quarters of a mile 
wide and the Pike ran along the ridge about half way between 
the two waterways. 

In the early afternoon General Breckinridge maneuvered 
his army into two lines — the cadets being in the second. Press- 
ing forward in this formation, the battalion of cadets was de- 
cending the north slope of Shirley's Hill and approaching the 
River Road, which runs west from New Market, when the 
Federal batteries got the range and shells exploded over the 
battalion, wounding, from three companies, four cadets and an 
officer, all of whom dropped out and saw no more of the battle. 
It was their baptism of blood. One of these cadets, Merritt, was 
"painfully" wounded and the other three were slightly injured. 
Among them was Charles H. Read, whose rifle, bearing the 
imprint of the shell which bent it at right angles, may be seen 
in VMI's Museum. The others were John S. Wise, who later 
collected information and lectured and wrote about the engage- 
ment many times, and Woodlief. The officer's wound, how- 
ever, was critical — it was a head injury — and for a long time 
he hung between life and death. He was the commander of 
"C" Company, Captain A. Govan Hill. 

The main part of the battle took place in the afternoon 
after the Federals had withdrawn to their new position and the 
units of the Confederate army had been redisposed. The Con- 
federates were the aggressors and the assault upon the first of 
the Federal lines to which the forces of Colonel Moor had 
withdrawn got underway about two o'clock. His two regiments 

[11] 



( 18th Connecticut and J 23rd Ohio) and Von Kleiser's Battery 
were soon driven from their position — parts of the regiments 
fleeing far to the rear and the battery dropping back about four 
hundred yards to the heights near the center of the second Hne. 

In adjusting the positions General Imboden took his 
force off to the right beyond Smith's Creek, perhaps with a 
view to getting to the Federals' rear and destroying the bridge 
over the Shenandoah, but as things worked out he could not 
cross the swollen creek, and thus the Confederate cavalry and 
four guns of McCIannahan's Battery were effectively eliminated 
from the battle — although for a time they did direct an en- 
filading fire on the Federal flank. 

The cadets were now near the center of the Confederate 
line and the chronology of the operations of the right, left, and 
center is somewhat confused in the many accounts because 
they are described separately although they occurred approxi- 
mately simultaneously. At the extreme left the 51st Virginia 
Infantry advanced along the river and behind them followed 
the 26th Virginia Battalion, they having had to fall back be- 
cause of the angle at which the river cuts in to the eastward 
at that narrow part of the passageway, and it was their privilege 
to support the men of the regiment in advance when they were 
compelled to retreat under the devastating fire of the massed 
Federal artillery. They did rally then, however, in some cases 
compulsorily at pistol's point, and together they surged forward, 
driving the Federals from their position on the heights and 
capturing three pieces of artillery. 

[12] 



The center of the Confederate line advanced on com- 
paratively level ground and there the cadets saw several hundred 
yards in front of them a farmhouse, the Bushong House. About 
five hundred yards beyond that was the Federal position pro- 
tected by eighteen guns on its right flank and four on its left. 
(The Federal army had twenty-eight guns all told, the Con- 
federate, eighteen.) The corps was now not only under the 
withering fire of the artillery but they had come within range 
of the Federal muskets. Here it was that Cabell, Crockett and 
Jones "fell dead from the explosion of one shell," and a few 
moments later McDowell fell, pierced through the heart by a 
rifle ball. It was here, as other casualties occurred, that the 
cadets preserved their alignment and closed in to fill the gaps 
with that precision which has wrung such high praise from their 
adversaries. 

The corps passed the Bushong House, two companies 
going to each side, and beyond as they re-formed they found 
themselves in an orchard in advance of the adjacent regiments. 
Now they were not only in the front line, they were beyond it. 
Soon after they entered the orchard, the Commandant, Colonel 
Shipp, was wounded and had to retire from the field, and here 
in this missile-swept orchard most of the casualties occurred; 
in fact, the canopy of shells, grape and canister and the play 
of musketry was so annihilating that some one shouted, "Lie 
down," and the corps obeyed, taking position behind a fence 
where they remained under fire nearly half an hour. 

On the extreme right very few Confederates remained. 
They were made up largely of the 23rd Virginia Battalion 

[13] 



(Lieut. Col. Clarence Derrick), a part of the 22nd Virginia 
Regiment, and fourteen of McLaughlin's guns, including the 
cadet pieces — and they successfully staved off the assault made 
by the remnant of two infantry regiments ( 1 8th Connecticut 
and 123rd Ohio) and the charging Federal squadrons. 

It was now about 3 o'clock and it was at this time, and 
not until this time, that the corps began to fire on the enemy. 
Beyond a wheat field in front of them were three regiments of 
infantry — the 54th Pennsylvania, the 1st West Virginia and 
the 34th Massachusetts (with the 12th West Virginia in re- 
serve), supported by Von Kleiser's Battery. While the cadets 
were lying down, the Confederate regiment (62nd Virginia) 
on their right, advancing through the shrieking shells, was 
repulsed with terrible loss. Terrible, yes, almost unbelievable, 
for this regiment lost one-half its men in a few minutes and 
one of the companies (Capt. Woodson's Missourians) lost 
sixty of its seventy members — 85 per cent. 

This staggering repulse occurred at about the same time 
that their companions of the 51st Virginia were being hurled 
back on the left and such was the shattered condition of the 
whole Confederate line that had Sigel then been able to use his 
cavalry, the result would have been disastrous — but his cavalry 
was concentrated opposite the Confederate right flank and there 
its desperate charge hud been effectively repelled. Having no 
available cavalry. General Sigel, who was on horseback near the 
center of the line, ordered a counter-attack which had hardly 
started when two of his regiments gave way, leaving only the 
34th Massachusetts to carry on. It was the critical point of the 

[ M ] 



battle and things happened fast. A black thundercloud burst 
over the shot-torn wheat field and deepened the already seem- 
ingly impassable sea of mud, now so gummy it literally pulled 
the shoes from the feet. 

It was clear to Captain Henry A. Wise, who was in com- 
mand after the wounded Colonel Shipp was removed from 
the field that the cadets could not endure at the fence line — 
they must either fall back or go^ forward. Many cadets, dis- 
tinctly recalling that Captain Wise had recently had his coat- 
tails and the seat of his trousers shot away, have described how 
he jumped to his feet and ordered the charge. (This same 
thought seems to have occurred to others, because, as a rumor 
flashed along the line that Wise also had been wounded, the 
other two tactical officers, Captains Robinson and Preston, also 
ordered the cadets to charge — according to their statements 
and those of some of the cadets.) The color bearer ran well 
to the front and, despite the incessant fire which was pouring in, 
the cadets sprang forward. This soul-stirring human avalanche 
surged onward and upward in an irresistible, wild drive which 
carried them through a maelstrom of mud, overshot with flying 
metal, up to the very mouths of Von Kleiser's cannon, which 
were served until the cadets, with fixed bayonets, dashed in 
between them and in hand to hand conflict captured one, and 
some claim two, pieces. The frantic cannoneers were driven 
from their guns and "Big" Evans, the cadet standard-bearer, 
mounting one of the caissons, waved on the charging cadets, 
who dashed hither and yon capturing prisoners and driving 
the now rapidly retreating Federal force before them. It was 

[15] 




New Market Statue at VMl 
Five of the cadets killed in the battle are buried under the statue. 



the type of service Napoleon reserved for the Old Guard. One 
cadet alone brought in twenty-three prisoners. Among those 
captured was Lieut. Col. Wm. S. Lincoln, of the 34th Massa- 
chusetts Infantry, who spoke enthusiastically in later years of 
the gallant conduct of the cadets. This officer had been wounded 
and later he requested General Imboden to present his field 
glasses to the attending surgeon, but the general was unable to 
locate him and twenty-five years later at the semi-centennial 
celebration, he placed the glasses in the VMI Museum where 
they may be seen today. 

The battle, as such, was over. The enemy was fleeing 
northward — the retreat being covered by two infantry regi- 
ments (28th and 11 6th Ohio), which came up about this 
time, and by the cleverly executed rear-guard maneuver of a 
battery directed by a young artillery captain, who just nine years 
before had been debarred from entering VMI because he was 
not a Virginian. Virginians only were admitted before 1858, 
so he went to West Point. He was Captain Henry A. DuPont 
(Battery B, 5th U. S. Artillery), and in 1913, as Senator 
DuPont, he introduced the bill which appropriated funds re- 
imbursing the Institute for the destruction of its property in 
1864 and with that money the Jackson Memorial Hall was 
constructed. 

The infantry, now much fatigued, continued the pursuit 
as far as Rude's Hill, and the artillery, including the cadet 
section, continued about five miles beyond and camped that 
night at Mt. Airy Farm, which is on the beautiful lowland 

[17] 



along the Shenandoah — over which the Federals retreated and 
burned the bridge. 

For the cadets it was the triumph of the Spirit of Youth. 
There can be little doubt about it because their numbers were 
almost insignificant and their arms utterly inferior to those of 
their opponents. The unshorn and unshod cadets were young 
men engaged that afternoon in their first pitched battle, after 
marching three days through rain and mud, and they had been 
up and on the march since one o'clock in the morning. The 
ramrods of their old Austrian rifles were so swollen by rains 
that some cadets could not draw them, and wherever possible 
they used captured rifles. Ten days later they were issued 
Enfield rifles — too late for battle use — and even their battle- 
flag was late in arriving — for the one sent for their special use 
did not reach Lexington until two days after the corps had left. 

In this engagement the corps did not carry the Con- 
federate flag nor did it carry the Virginia flag, and Federal 
officers told in after years that they debated what natty, pre- 
cisely drilled organization could be fighting under a banner 
bearing such a strange device. The corps always carried its 
own flag and there was one color-bearer, and only one, until 
after the war. This caused some Federal officers to think it 
was a foreign legion, for they did not at first recognize the 
corps flag. The banner was of white silk on which was em- 
blazoned, among other things, a picture of George Washington 
and the Seal of Virginia. 

A peculiarity of the battle was that there was but one 
mounted man on the field, besides the commanding general 

[18] 



and his staff. He was a cadet, and cadet-wise he had assumed 
that the order prohibiting mounts did not apply to him. His 
excuse was that he had been detailed as an aide to the com- 
mandant, and it was this same cadet, "Cooney" Ricketts, and 
this same steed, which two days later bore the first news of 
the battle to Lexington. The horse belonged to Cadet Shaw 
who had been left behind on the sick-list. 

What of the "boys" who were in the battle? Two out 
of every three in that wild charge are "rats" — they were so 
called then as they are today. Boys? All the world has called 
them MEN, although two had their fifteenth birthday just four 
months before. They were young. On the other hand, there were 
some veterans among the cadets. Two cadets were older than the 
commandant. However, the fairest comparison of ages comes 
when we use the average age. It was eighteen years and three 
months (exactly 18 years, 2 months and 27 days). 

Immediately after the battle orders were issued calling 
for lists of those engaged, but the official report of the com- 
mandant was not dated until seven weeks later and there seems 
to have been some diflficulty in preparing lists in the troublous 
period. Before the New Market Monument was unveiled in 
1903, the committee having charge of the erection of the 
monument had determined to place bronze tablets bearing 
the names of the members of the corps on the pedestal, and 
the survivors magnanimously agreed that the plates should 
bear the names of all cadets in the corps rather than those only 
who were fortunate enough to participate in the battle. 

[19] 



It was not until many years later, however, that a report 
which can be considered accurate showing who participated 
in the campaign was uncovered. It also was much later that 
it was discovered that two of the cadets who died after the 
battle died as result of wounds sustained at New Market. 
These discoveries necessitated changes in the listings recorded 
on the original tablets made for the pedestal of the statue. 

The cadet casualties were twenty-three per cent, or about 
one in four. (Killed, 10; wounded, 47; total, 57; officers, 6; 
cadets in infantry, 209; cadets in artillery, 32; total, 247.) 

Two things more would I mention. First: Was it an 
important battle, and, if so, why? The Battle of New Market 
has been described as one of the most important secondary 
battles of the war but the reason is seldom recounted, and we 
will revert to the contemporary record for a moment. General 
Grant's message containing the oft-quoted sentence, "I propose 
to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," was written 
on the very day the cadets left Lexington on this campaign. 
In the Valley of Virginia the forces engaged at New Market 
involved about ten or eleven thousand men, of whom not more 
than six thousand were engaged, but just sixty miles to the 
east, beyond the Blue Ridge — where Grant was endeavoring to 
reach Richmond, armies rv\'enty-fold greater in number were 
struggling. Grant was continuously "sidling" ofi' to the left 
and as often General Lee shifted to the right. The major 
engagements of this period were the advance in the Wilderness 
(May 1th and 5th); the great battle there (6th and 7th); 
and the long struggle at Spotsylvania Court House (8th to 

[20 1 



22nd) — some of the greatest battles of the war. All this was 
going on during the New Market campaign and the military 
slaughter at Bloody Angle passed into history (May 12th) 
after the cadets left Lexington and before they reached Staunton. 
It was under such circumstances that Lee wrote General 
Breckinridge in as many words: "It will be impossible to send 
any reinforcements to the Valley from this army . . ." Breckin- 
ridge must look out for himself. 

Immediately after the charge of the cadets the authorities 
at the seat of government were notified of General Sigel's 
defeat, but no one in Richmond had any idea that the VMI 
Cadets had been engaged at New Market — and the victory so 
far as was then known simply protected Lee's left flank and 
his line of supply. Then with the slow but steady approach 
of the Federal armies toward Richmond, the Secretary of War 
sent orders to Lexington requesting that the cadets be sent to 
man the intrenchments protecting the Capital, so that the older 
men, then in the trenches, might be used to thwart the invaders. 
It was for that reason, and having no connection whatever with 
the success at New Market, that the corps was ordered to 
Richmond. In fact, because of conditions in the Valley it was 
suggested that the corps be routed by way of Lynchburg. The 
cadets arrived in Richmond eight days after the battle, by 
which time everyone knew of their conduct at New Market 
and they were lionized. Seven of their number had been 
members of the corps which went to Richmond at the be- 
ginning of the war as drillmasters under the command of a 
comparatively unknown major, who later became world famous 

[2i] 



as Stonewall Jackson. This time, while they were in the Rich- 
mond trenches, the second great battle at Cold Harbor was 
fought — a battle in which General Lee's army successfully beat 
off the invaders. 

Back in the Valley, however, a new commander, General 
David Hunter, had taken command of Sigel's defeated army 
and it had again started southward. The cadets, no longer 
needed after the victory at Cold Harbor, were ordered back 
and they left Richmond on the very day the Federal troops 
entered Staunton. At Staunton two other armies from the West 
joined Hunter. The combined forces had been directed to 
proceed eastward toward Charlottesville, but based upon a plan 
submitted by General Averell, under which he stated that 
Lynchburg could be captured in five days, the line of march 
was changed and the army proceeded toward Lynchburg by 
way of Lexington. The cadets reached Lexington a day and a 
half ahead of this army of 17,500 which was being impeded 
as much as possible by less than two thousand Confederates 
under an old cadet, General John McCausland, '57. All he 
could hope to do was delay the advance — but every hour thus 
gained was precious. When the Federals approached the Insti- 
tute the bridge at East Lexington was burned; some shots were 
exchanged (although the cadets, who retreated that afternoon 
to the James River pass through the Blue Ridge, did no firing ) ; 
and the Federal troops went on toward Lynchburg — not, how- 
ever, without a very costly delay of a day in Lexington after 
they had destroyed and then burned the Virginia Mihtary 
Institute. 

[ 22 ]. 



Following General Lee's victory at Cold Harbor the oper- 
ations around Richmond and Petersburg settled down to a 
trench and siege warfare, and they so continued until the end 
of the war, but the success of that great conflict had been such 
that there was not another major battle in eastern Virginia and 
it also enabled General Lee to release General Breckinridge's 
troops and in addition to detach an entire army corps — Jackson's 
old corps, now under General Early — to the relief of Lynchburg, 
where these reinforcements arrived just one day ahead of 
General Hunter's army. Not only did Early successfully drive 
the invaders away from Lynchburg, but, in accordance with 
a pre-arranged plan, he immediately struck northward, threaten- 
ing Washington (getting within sight of the Capitol) and 
reaching points in Pennsylvania. This success brought forth 
directions from General Grant to General Hunter that "he 
wants your troops to eat out Virginia clear and clean as far as 
they go, so the crows flying over it for the balance of the 
season will have to carry their provender with them." Had 
the cadets and their older comrades been unsuccessful at New 
Market, Lynchburg, an important military center, must in- 
evitably have been captured by the invaders. Lee was engaged 
and could send no aid, but by staying the advance for one 
month the entire situation was changed and a large opposing 
force (10,100 men— Breckinridge, 2,100; Early, 8,000) could 
be and was spared from General Lee's army. Thus was Lynch- 
burg saved and the people of that city should be forever grate- 
ful to those who fought far away at New Market. Here we 
find the second of the major military benefits of the battle (the 

[23] 



first having been the protection of General Lee's flank and hne 
of supply.) 

What became of the members of that gallant VMI Corps 
when the war was past and they went forth on their individual 
paths throughout the world? A study of their careers has pro- 
duced some amazing facts. Fifty-seven of these men became 
lawyers and fourteen became distinguished jurists; five New 
Market cadets became ministers of the Christian church. In 
the group we find sixteen physicians and surgeons, three college 
presidents, masters of the palette and chisel, toilers of the plow, 
counting houses and marts of the world, in fact, representatives 
of almost every vocation. 

And what does all this mean to the men of the Cadet 
Corps of today and tomorrow? These words I have for you 
cadets of the present and the future: It means that you have 
something money cannot buy. Remember this — "A reputation 
is an achievement of yesterday, to be lived today and guarded 
tomorrow," and that is where you come in. With such a 
military and civic record before you, you cannot, you dare not, 
you will not fail when your opportunity comes. Because you, 
too, have lived the life of a VMI cadet. 



[24] 



THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 



The Charge of The VMI Cadets at New Market 3 

From the painting in Jackson Memorial Hall at the Virginia Military 
Institute, by Benjamin West Clinedinst, of the VMI Class of 1880. 
One of the large canvas paintings in the country, it measures 18 feet 
X 23 feet. The figures in the foreground are seven feet high. The 
painting was unveiled June 14, 1914. 



VMI Cadets Amid Von Kleiser's Guns at New Market 9 

From the original painting at the Virginia Military Institute, showing 
VMI cadets as they advance on the Federal battery at New Market. 
The painting was done in 1912 by John P. Walker. 



The New Market Battle Monument 16 

A view of the New Market Monument, which stands before Nichols 
Engineering Hall at the Virginia Military Institute. Around the 
pedestal of the monument, which was erected in 1903 and changed 
to its present location in 1912, are six bronze tablets on which are 
inscribed rosters of the staff, the four cadet companies, and the casual- 
ties. Buried beneath the monument are the bodies of five of the 
cadets killed in the battle. Surmounting it is the bronze figiue of 
"Virginia Mourning Her Dead," by Sir Moses Ezekiel, who as a 
cadet fought in the battle. 



Presented to the library of Congress 

■By: JOI-E'! iIILTON DeVJITT KYLE, II 

195U Colnifibia Road, N. W.', 

V7as-ainston 9) D» C., 

SepteiTiber 12, I96I. 



■JJJ^Y OF CONORESS 



Q0Ql.HH77b5E 



